Cheryl Gleason

 

As a multi-disciplinary artist, each medium I work in connects to a different facet of my personality. My favorite medium is oil and cold wax, which allows me to explore abstraction through rich texture, color, and spontaneity. My process often begins with intuitive mark-making—laying down random colors and gestures to see what imagery emerges organically.

​My deep connection to nature stems from my upbringing in northern Idaho, where I spent much of my youth exploring the wilderness surrounding our lakefront home. That early immersion in the natural world continues to shape my visual language. Later, my first collegiate training as an architectural draftsperson instilled a love for structure—lines, curves, patterns, and forms—which now influences the architectural elements in my work.

​My current panels reflect a bird’s-eye view of the California landscape—blocks and patches of color hint at topographies shaped by agriculture and ecology. These abstracted terrains incorporate symbols and forms that reference the vital ecosystems supporting pollinators like bees, birds, and butterflies. As the nation’s leading agricultural state, California depends on these creatures for food production and ecological health. Butterflies, capable of migrating thousands of miles, and bees, crucial pollinators, are central to our shared survival.

​Honeycomb shapes nod to the architecture of bees, while realistic renderings of flowers and butterflies ground the work in tangible detail amid abstraction. Simple words and phrases woven into the composition act as gentle reminders—anchors to meaning, to land, and to our responsibility to both.